Images of I. V. Stalin and A. Hitler in Historical Memory: Constructing the Past in the Media Space

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the images of I. Stalin and A. Hitler in historical memory. The construction of ideas about the past is based on the possibilities of media, which in the digital age are becoming limitless. With the help of media, images of the past are integrated into the agenda and actualized in the mass consciousness, and personalized figures of history are most in demand. The historical memory of modern society is largely formed on the basis of ideas about the events and heroes of the 20th century, which include the history of totalitarian regimes and the Second World War. The authors put two key figures of the last century with contradictory historical reputations at the center of their research. The article shows the importance of I. Stalin and A. Hitler for historical memory on the basis of available sociological research data. A corpus analysis of the tonality of news reports mentioning these historical figures allowed us to present the proportions of positive and negative use of their names in foreign media publications. Quantitative data made it possible to compare attitudes towards Stalin and Hitler in English-language information resources and explain certain trends in the dynamics of their representation by the nature of the news content. The study of Internet users’ search queries allowed us to supplement the idea of the directions of constructing images of the Soviet leader and the Nazi Fuhrer in historical memory. The data obtained demonstrate the high interest of the world community in ambiguous historical figures. Their images have become part of popular culture, they are used in political struggle and entertainment network discourse, which leaves an imprint on the formation of ideas about them in the media environment. The use of quantitative analysis data to study the images of I. Stalin and A. Hitler makes it possible to determine their place in the historical memory of the modern global community.

Keywords

• i. stalin
• a. hitler
• historical memory
• memory studies
• media
• memory of the past
• images of the past
• media space of history